Game of Thrones

“Entry-level” product it may be, but thanks to its strong power and torque and a 12-percent taller sixth gear ratio, the 9ff Turbo absolutely blitzed everything else at the event.

The timing gear showed an impressive 368.6 km/h (229.03 mph) on its first run late in the afternoon of day one, and a very consistent 368.7 km/h (229.1 mph) on its second run on the morning of day two. This speed set the event benchmark, and by the time the curtain came down at lunch time on the second day, no one had topped it.

Two of the most impressive performances from cars that appeared close to standard came from modified Porsches. EDO Competition brought along a stock-looking 991 Turbo S, on which EDO’s owner, former BPR race mechanic Edo Karabegovic, only had time to perform a very quick Stage One conversion with exhaust and ECU. This bumps power from 560 to 600 hp, with 780 Nm (575.3 lb-ft) of torque, 30 Nm (22 lb-ft) more than the standard car on overboost.

Porsche claims a top speed of 318 km/h (197.6 mph) for the Turbo S, and the EDO car clocked a consistent 326.7 km/h (203 mph) on both runs, the only car at the event to be bang on the nail twice. It ran on the new Conti Force Contact track-day rubber introduced earlier this year.

The other “sleeper” was Gemballa’s Panamera GTP700, which looked standard apart from its 22-in. forged alloy wheels. Driven by Gemballa CEO Andreas Schwarz, who had never been to Nardó before, the car recorded 333.4 km/h (207.17 mph) on day one, and 338.8 km/h (210.52 mph) on its second attempt.

While Gemballa’s Stage One conversion produces 550 hp, the GTP700 conversion includes modified turbochargers, a high-efficiency intercooler system and other changes to give the Panamera Turbo’s V8 a boost to 700 hp and 950 Nm (685.9 lb-ft) of torque.

The fact that this fully street-legal car exceeded Gemballa’s claimed 335 km/h Vmax despite the drag from the big 22-in. wheels and the scrubbing on the banking, was doubly impressive. (Nardó’s banking is designed so that there is no lateral force up to 240 km/h. However, over that speed the onset of lateral g adds to the stress on the suspension, wheels and tires.)